WizKid to headline Diamond City Concert
WeekendLife
Gaborone City Council is bringing renowned Nigerian artist, Wizkid to Gaborone on December 22 to headline the Diamond City Music concert- an initiative by the council to promote urban tourism. The concert will be held at the National Stadium and will feature 25 local artists.
Born Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, the 27 year old will be the third Nigerian muso to perform in Botswana, after Davido and Tekno. The singer/ songwriter started his music career at the age of 11 as a member of Glorious Five- a group he formed along with his church members. He rose to prominence in 2010 following the release of his hit “Holla at your Boy”. He has since gone on to collaborate with some of America’s great music acts in Drake and Chris Brown and penetrated the music industry in that country.
He recently won three All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA); including Best Male Act (West Africa), Song of the Year (Come Closer) and Artist of the Year. According to organizers, the Diamond City Music concert is aimed at promoting urban tourism and attracting the world to the main city, Gaborone. The hope is for the concert to pull people from across the world to experience the capital city. Although it has not been confirmed as an annual event, the organizers wish to hot the concert more than once a year.
In interview with WeekendLife, the Event Promoter Gilbert Seagile, explained that the reason why they chose WizKid as the main act is because he is a renowned artist that has a huge fan base and has the capacity to pull people to the capital city. “Wizkid is a big Nigerian artist who is recognised internationally and is one of the highly thought artists across the world. We wanted the biggest act to come to the Diamond City Concert,” Seagile explained. The event will also see 25 artists sharing the stage with the Davido rival.
“We decided to engage as many local artists as we can because we want to embrace local talent and we can’t afford to keep them on the dark side. A total of 25 local artists will also be there to entertain during the big night,” he explained.
The Diamond City Concert has also invited guest stars from other parts of Africa to perform alongside him and the local acts. “This concert shall be headlined by Wizkid (Nigeria), Sjava (SA), BurnaBoy(Nigeria), Ringo Madlingozi(SA), and Freshly Ground (SA) and top 25 local artists,” Seagile highlighted.
According to Seagile, already early bird tickets for the event are sold out. He further assured that the 27 year old will definitely come to perform at the show. “People are not panicking, the minute we sent an invitation, WizKid confirmed his coming. He even confirmed this when he tweeted about his Diamond City Concerts performance, and that on its own ceased the doubt from people. We are that organized and there is less propaganda,” he said.
Seagile explained that they are doing their best to ensure that the event is well advertised. He said that they have brought forth branded cars, they are also doing count down every week and they have also come up with a television show to update people about the show as a way of building the hype around the event. They will also be travelling the country as a way of letting people know about the event and they will be travelling as far as Maun.
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